MORENO VALLEY: Corruption trial looms for college VP

Moreno Valley Collegeâs vice president of student services is scheduled to go to trial April 28 in a San Diego County public-corruption case that at one point involved 15 defendants and hundreds of felony and misdemeanor counts.

Gregory R. Sandoval, 60, has been charged with 29 counts: conspiracy, receiving bribes, conflict of interest, using a public position for financial gain, filing a false instrument, perjury on the forms public officials use to report gifts, and receiving gifts with a total value in excess of allowed limits.

From 1994 to 2010, Sandoval was a member of the board of trustees in the Sweetwater Union High School District in Chula Vista. During that time, Sandoval participated in votes that awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in voter-approved bond projects to contractors.

San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis alleged that contractors competing for the projects wined and dined school district officials and gave them thousands of dollars worth of meals and tickets before the votes were cast in the contractorsâ favor. In some cases, trustees ignored the districtâs rankings of contractors in awarding the jobs.

Contractors who testified before a grand jury said Sandoval constantly had his hand out and even allowed a contractor to pay for his daughterâs participation in a beauty pageant, documents say.

âThe widespread corruption we uncovered during our investigation of this case is outrageous and shameful,â Dumanis said in a written statement in January 2012, when charges were filed. âFor years, public officials regularly accepted what amounted to bribes in exchange for their votes on multimillion-dollar construction projects.â

Sandoval remains on the job in Moreno Valley and has pleaded not guilty to all charges. His attorney, Ricardo Gonzalez, declined to comment on the case and said Sandoval would not comment either.

Sandoval was hired in Moreno Valley in 2010, two years before he was charged.

Virginia Blumenthal, president of the Riverside Community College board of directors, said she could not comment on why Sandoval has been allowed to continue to work in his public position, because it is a personnel matter.

She did say that Sandoval does not have the authority to spend money or award contracts, and that no members of the public have expressed concern at board meetings about Sandoval continuing in his position while his criminal case is heard.

District spokesman Jim Parsons said Sandoval has control over his departmentâs budget but that contracts with vendors are approved by the vice president of business services and that requests for bids on projects are handled by the district purchasing manager.

The district attorneyâs âstatement of factsâ filed with the court laid out the prosecutionâs case and included accounts of what it said were Sandovalâs actions, including these:

In early 2006, when Rene Flores, owner of the construction management firm Seville Group Inc., sought to begin building relationships with Sweetwater officials, he did so through his longstanding personal relationship with Sandoval.

On Feb. 17, 2006, Flores took Sandoval to lunch at Anthonyâs. Flores indicated to the grand jury that he paid for this meal, and in fact, Seville Group âalways paid,â according to grand jury testimony.

On Oct. 5, 2006, Flores took Sandoval and his wife, among others, to dinner at Flemingâs, a high-end steakhouse. The next day, Flores said, he donated $5,000 to Sandovalâs political campaign at Sandovalâs request.

Sevilleâs Jaime Ortiz testified that throughout Sandovalâs tenure on the Sweetwater board, his requests to be taken out âgradually increased, but for the most part were perpetual.â

Sandoval would request tickets to concerts and sporting events, and eventually would only accept âgood tickets,â not just any tickets, Ortiz testified.

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